


Just a Bit of Fun

by ArgentNoelle



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Angst, Arguments, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Character Study, Conversations, Dialogue-Only, Doppelganger, Gen, Gotham City - Freeform, Humor, Illusions, Jotun!Loki, Jötunheimr | Jotunheim, Loki Angst, Loki Feels, Loki-centric, Loss, Magic, Night, No Dialogue, The Void
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-03-16 19:32:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3500261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentNoelle/pseuds/ArgentNoelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odds and ends; snippets of scenes that don't belong to larger stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drunk Thor and Loki's Great Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Good Omens-style drunk conversation between Loki and Thor

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that when the idea had been brought up, they were so deep into their cups that Loki had stopped insulting Thor and was on the verge of passing out; while Thor thought _everything_ was a good idea when drunk.

“We should rule together,” Thor said with an air of finality. He slammed his mug onto the table, jerking Loki out of his stupor. Loki tried to focus on Thor with squinting eyes.

“Whadayou mean?” he asked finally, with an air of deep suspicion.

“I mean, we should rule together,” Thor said again. “Ish the persh-purf- a good idea.”

“We can’t _both_ be king,” Loki protested. “You know that. Its against all the rules!” He frowned. “Anyway,” he said, “father’s going to crown you.”

“Maybe not!” Thor protested. Loki’s glare was enough to make him subside. “I mean—I mean we should rule together, right?”

Loki leaned back carefully. He put on a far-thinking expression. “Right,” Loki said. “But we can’t.”

Thor grinned and leaned forward, knocking over his glass. “But we _can_ ,” he said. “If one of us pretends to be queen!”

“Hmmmm,” Loki answered. He frowned. “You can be the girl.”


	2. Thor and Loki: Conversation in Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-Avengers AU [parody-ish]

“That was not my best plan. I will admit to that.”

“Not your best plan! Loki, we thought you were dead—”

“I was _unavailable_ —”

“And then, when we finally found out that, against all odds, you had survived, what should have been a joyous occasion was interrupted by the fact that you tried to _destroy Midgard_ —”

“ _Rule_ it.”

“Forcing Father to send me down to stop you. I could have killed you!”

“Oh please. I knew you wouldn’t. And it worked, didn’t it?”

“You are arrested.”

“At least I’m not being tortured for eternity. I find this to be preferable. And I will escape— _soon_.”

“Loki—”

“Don’t. I have not forgiven you yet.”

“You, forgive _me_? It is _I_ who should forgive _you_!”

“Oh, are we making a list of our wrongs? Allow me to join in. _You_ were the one that pushed me into the abyss—”

“For the last time, Loki, desist in your lies—”

“Oh Thor. So easy to bait, even after all this time. Ah—ready to kill me now?”

“Never!”

“That’s not what you said yesterday.”

“You know I would never—in truth—whatever I said—surely you didn’t _believe_ me?”

“And _I_ am the god of lies? Funny, isn’t it.”

“…”

“Go on. I didn’t ask you to visit me anyhow.”

“I will return.”

“No doubt.”


	3. Loki's Clones

Story 1: Two Lokis

* * *

He opened his eyes to find a duplicate of himself sitting on the bed next to him.

Loki blinked. In the early morning, shadows still passed through the room, though the sun had started to rise. His doppelgänger sat, legs folded under him, watching with an expression of curious interest.

“What are you?” Loki asked warily, sitting up.

“I think that is the question I should be asking you,” his other self replied. “As far as I know, I have no twin. And I cannot feel you in my mind, so you are not a duplicate either…”

“Do you mean to say you are Loki,” he answered incredulously.

“Of course I am.”

* * *

Story 2: Illusions of Other People 

* * *

Sometimes Loki wished it were possible to make doubles of other people. He had perfected the art of his own clones, and used it to his advantage, but how much more could he do with the ability to duplicate anyone he knew?

Thor, for instance—if he could make duplicates of Thor, he could put his own mind into Thor’s body, and for once they would be able to talk about something that interested him.

Or he could make Thor obedient to his every whim, make him trail after like a shadow while Loki strode ahead.

He could make Thor appear when he woke in the night to one of endless nightmares, and Thor would comfort him like his mother. For that matter, he could make Frigga comfort him herself.

And Odin—he might finally say that he loved him just as much as Thor, with nothing but truth in his eyes.

Yes, sometimes he wished very much that he could make duplicates of other people. If he could do so, he might live forever alone, in a citadel of comforting lies.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was written before Thor 2, when it turns out Loki actually can make illusions of other people


	4. Loki, Growing Up

Loki had always known he was _not quite right_. He had always known he was, in some way, _strange_. He knew, more because of what everyone _didn’t_ say than what they _did_. Nobody ever talked about it.

When Thor leaned how to spar, he was praised and criticized in equal measure—his teachers would spend time correcting him, while Thor listened in, face narrowed in concentration, fairly vibrating with impatience. Mother and father would hear about whatever new thing Thor had done—good or bad, from either their tutor’s or from Thor’s mouth, and they would speak to him frankly. Father usually frowned, but when Thor had done something good, he would clap him on the shoulder and stare at him with something like pride.

When Loki found out that magic was his gift, tutors were arranged for him promptly. But Father never asked, _what have you learned, Loki_? He never said, _You should not have done that_ either, even when Loki played the most ridiculous tricks.

When Thor got into trouble, everyone chastised him firmly. Thor would sulk in his room, unhappy at whatever privilege had been taken away—usually being able to play with his friends.

When Loki got in trouble, he would get a long look—as though he had disappointed everyone. As though they had expected better of him. They never told him _what_ he had done wrong, or _why_ he had done wrong—perhaps they thought he was smarter than Thor, and already knew.

Perhaps. But when Father looked at him with disappointment, Loki _knew_ he never looked at Thor like that. With Thor, it might be anger—often was—but always with the expectation that Thor would _do better next time_.

When Father looked at him with disappointment, Loki felt like he had already failed.


	5. Flying Over Gotham

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman flies over Gotham

It’s night. The sky looks red, lit from below by the fires of city lights, swirling smokes enclosing the upper edge of the buildings, smothering gently the turbid air. Hot. The mid-summer air restless as the people below. Nothing but small crimes tonight: in and out like a shadow dropping from the ceiling, a hidden creature in plan sight. Fear trails through the air, always, just below the surface of the skin through which lights glow among pathways of cars and blood. He coasts among the drafts, senses alert, mind free and all attention poised, the thoughts have finished, vanished. Just the feel of his body and the wind and the ever-changing adjustments, playful, it is a mortal game to keep himself aloft, and he matches it, always, with his city. Back and forth as though they dance, fingers touching only the spaces between emptiness.


	6. Thor and Jotun!Loki Stuck on a Ledge

“This is all your fault,” Loki says, again, peering over the side of the ledge to the yawning chasm below.

Thor snorts. His arms are crossed, and he’s sitting feet towards the drop, back pressed against the comfortingly solid cliff behind him, trying to ignore how small the space is. The Jotun prince turns toward him and scowls. “If you hadn’t pushed me we could have avoided this situation altogether.”

Thor closes his eyes. The sun is cold and pale high above; but the air is comparatively mild for Jotunheim, and he thinks he might be able to doze off if he were not so afraid of falling off the ledge in his sleep.

“If you hadn’t attacked me,” he begins at last, before being loudly interrupted.

“ _Me_ attack _you_!” He’s fuming, Thor can tell; if the ledge were any wider he’d be pushing Thor to the edge just to feel in control. All he can do now is stand up and look down on him. He’s blocking the sun, and Thor opens his eyes.

“Yes,” he says in growing irritation.

“Well, the way _I_ remember it, _you_ were the one who chased me across a plain you knew _full well_ was dangerous!”

“You insulted me,” Thor retorts, glaring back.

“I said you were an imbecilic excuse for a prince.”

“Exactly.”

Loki gives him a scathing glance, and then looks exaggeratedly around the deserted snowscape.

Thor chooses to not interpret the motion. If he did, he’d have to get insulted again. And as they’re currently stuck on a tiny ledge over a yawning chasm in the one place in all Jotunheim that no magic—not even Mjolnir—will work, the fall would be extremely unpleasant.

“We’ll be rescued soon enough,” Thor says instead.

“Rescued,” Loki gripes. “Ten miles from my own home. Splendid.”


	7. [Thor and Loki] Conversations on the Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One night, on a balcony overlooking the stars, Loki tells Thor what it was like in the Void. [In this story, they are on good terms, some unidentified time after the movies]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this originally as a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise and then edited it. I feel like there's a story connected to this piece but I haven't found it yet and may never find it, so until that day, here it is on its own.

Loki was sitting outside and listening to the faint sound of ships as it rained past flying wavelengths of light. Behind him, Thor saw Loki standing there. “It’s chilly with all this breeze,” he said at last. “Lets go inside. There’s a fire on.”

“No, I like it out here,” Loki said softly. “It’s comforting.”

Thor came out to stand next to him on the balcony and turning, saw that Loki had a strange, wistful look on his face. “What is it?” Thor asked, and Loki said “it reminds me…”

“Of when you fell?” He dared to ask. On no other time would he bring it up but out here in the night and relaxed it seemed Loki had brought up the subject first.

“Yes,” Loki whispered.

“But wasn’t it—” He had never got up the nerve to ask Loki about it, but by all accounts the void was… to fall into it had to be one of the most horrific ends imaginable. But Loki hadn’t ended.

“What was it like?”

Loki watched out with a faraway look reaching as though for something lost. “It was like being unmade. I no longer existed as a single consciousness, only as a stream of sensations without thought and it was the most beautiful thing. I was connected to everything.”

“What?”

“You can never be lonely there, Thor. You are one with the universe, the tree itself. Sometimes I do miss it.”

The look on his face made Thor uneasy and he didn’t like it. “You are not alone here,” he said with certainty. “Loki. Tell me you know that.”

“I know,” Loki answered back. “I do know. But it is not the same.” Then Thor took the hand resting on the balcony very cold, holding it gently as though he might at any moment disappear into thin air. And just looked at him, thinking what a miracle it was that they could be here at all, after everything they had gone through.

 


End file.
